NC State LHP Dominic Fritton posts best start of young campaign in 10-2 rout of Canisius

After NC State right-handed pitcher Dominic Fritton cruised through the first four innings, he found himself in trouble in the fifth against Canisius. His command began to waver, which featured painted the corners with ease early in the game, leading to two wild pitches, two walks and a pair of singles. 

Even though his outing appeared to take a downhill turn, Fritton didn’t blink on the mound. Instead, he stayed composed. In a way, he looked comfortable in a very uncomfortable position with the bases loaded and nobody out. 

And, well, his confidence paid off. Fritton struck out the next three batters to limit the damage to just one run as he fired pitch after pitch with authority. 

From then on, it was all Wolfpack as the team’s offense provided more than enough run support to help its ace earn his first win of the season in a 10-2 win over the Golden Griffins on Friday afternoon at Doak Field. The victory also snapped NC State’s five-game losing streak, its first win in 13 days.

But when Fritton found himself in a self-inflicted bases-loaded situation, the Wolfpack’s coaching staff believed he earned the right of finding a way out of it. No reliever got up in the bullpen, although right-handers Jaxon Lucas and Jacob Dudan and lefty Cooper Consiglio were ready to warm up just past the right field fence. 

They weren’t needed in the moment, though, as Fritton mowed the next three batters down as his curveball and fastball peppered the strike zone. 

“I thought that was huge for him,” said Elliott Avent, the Pack’s 29th-year skipper. “We’re going to give him that opportunity because he’s got the stuff to do it. I thought it was great.”

Fritton became NC State’s first pitcher to escape a bases-loaded jam with nobody out via three straight strikeouts since … himself. The lefty accomplished that very feat during his Freshman All-America campaign against North Carolina A&T in the 2023 season. 

And his outing against Canisius resembled the Fritton that the Wolfpack had from his stellar freshman season, while his sophomore campaign was a turbulent year that he and the NC State coaching staff believed he had worked past. 

Fritton logged six quality innings of work as he allowed just two runs (only one earned) on six hits with two walks and a career-best 12 strikeouts. He posted the highest single-game strikeout total since Matt Willadsen’s 13 against Radford in 2022. 

Fritton’s showing against Canisius was nearly a 180-degree difference from his previous start, an 8-3 loss to Ohio State at the Jax Baseball Classic last Friday. In that appearance, Fritton was on the receiving end of a three-error performance, while he had six walks to just four strikeouts. The Buckeyes scored five runs in his 4.2 innings on the mound, but just one of them was earned — a home run. 

As he looks to build off the quality start moving forward, Fritton wants to take what he can learn from the win, while also remaining even-keeled in the process. 

“It helps get me in more of a groove and just figuring out more about myself, what works and what doesn’t,” Fritton said. “Each week’s a new week. Just like the bad outings, nothing carries over. Same thing with the good outings. I don’t want it to make my head too big. I just want to keep focusing on what I need to.”

Fritton attacked the offseason to even be in this position. He retooled himself both physically and mentally after the College World Series in an effort to leave his 7.64 ERA with 72 strikeouts and 47 walks in 73 innings last year behind him. 

While his 2025 season didn’t get off to the best of starts with seven runs allowed (just one earned) as unlucky breaks behind him didn’t go his way. But his mindset was all about the next pitch, not to worry about what came just before. That paid dividends against Canisius. 

Fritton conceded two softly-hit singles in the first before he retired 11 of the next 12 hitters, which featured six straight strikeouts as the Golden Griffins couldn’t catch up to his 94-mph fastball. It didn’t matter where in the zone he placed it, that pitch was a near-automatic swing-and-miss weapon for the Pack’s star starter. 

The career-best outing proved to Fritton and NC State that he is headed in the right direction. He made it a painless game for the 2,476 fans in attendance on the picture-perfect final day of February. 

While that outcome isn’t always guaranteed as Avent, a baseball lifer is more than familiar with, Fritton is headed in the right direction as the calendar begins to inch closer to ACC play.  

“When you put all that time in, it’s nice to have the results come,” Avent said of Fritton. “But the results of this game don’t always give you what you put into it. I think he was really pleased with his performance today. I think he pitched well. He knows it’s going to pay off.”

So far it has. And that’s all the Wolfpack can ask for through the first three weekends of the 2025 season.